The chair I did my demonstrations on during my recent class is sitting in the shop, mocking me because it’s just a short session from being finished. I needed to make & install the lower slat - so decided that’s what I’d start the day with. Which led to another detour - I like to use the steambox for installing the slats. probably overkill but it makes them so easy to bend. And no sense setting up the steambox for one piece of wood, so I split out and shaved a continuous arm for another chair.
I shaved one face flat & clean enough to lay out the c-arm. Then I made a couple of crosscuts just past where the hands meet the bow/arm. My goal was to then split off that waste and try to make something with it. Sometimes it might be spindles, a bow for a sack back, etc. This time I decided on the crest rail for a shaved windsor (Curtis Buchanan’s “democratic” chair.) At our right end in the photo above you can see where I chopped down from the hand to the bottom of that saw kerf - that gave me room enough to start a split - and once it was underway I snuck a small basket=makers’ froe and split it down to the other end. It popped free when it reached the other saw kerf.
Both bends worked perfectly - as did the slat (which got no photo.)
Then I got to my actual work for today - making some strips of molding for my dressing box. I did some rough calculations and figured about 11’ of the 5/8” wide molding I used on those cupboards I built. Here’s the format for half of the bottom drawer - done in ubiquitous blue tape.
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